Sky Sports F1 star reveals 270kph Nurburgring crash: 'Car flipped three times'

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Sky Sports F1 star reveals 270kph Nurburgring crash: 'Car flipped three times'

A Sky Sports star shared their experience at the Nurburgring

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Friday 24 April 2026 15:57

Sky Sports F1 star and former racing driver Naomi Schiff has opened up about the worst crash of her career at the terrifying Nurburgring.

Schiff spent much of her racing career in GT machinery, a category of racing now more popular with F1's fanbase thanks to four-time champion Max Verstappen's exploits around the iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife.

After contesting the NLS9 round last year, NLS2 in March and the 24h Qualifiers in April, Verstappen will take on the Nurburgring 24 Hours challenge from May 14-May 17, where he will hope to add the race victory to his already successful racing career.

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In 2018, Schiff herself took on the race in the Cup X class alongside Rahel Frey, Laura Kraihamer and Lena Strycek in the KTM X-Bow GT4, where they finished second in class.

During the latest episode of the Up to Speed podcast, Schiff opened up about her experiences at the Nurburgring where she experienced the worst crash of her career.

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Schiff's 270kph crash at the Nurburgring

Schiff explained: "I actually had my worst crash ever in my career on the Nurburgring, but it's still part of that of the Nordschleife, flipped the car three times. Open top cockpit, the last chicane brake failure, which was 270kph crash, flipped the car three times, landed pretty much on the barrier, and it was in a practice session on top of that. So it was really not worth it.

Schiff then referenced Bearman's crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, where he suffered 50G crash to avoid a collision with a slow moving Franco Colapinto.

The British driver had recently appeared on the same podcast, where he explained that instantly after the crash he wanted to ensure his family knew he was alright.

"I was okay for the most part. I just wanted to get out quickly to show, especially my family who are always watching me, that I was fine. Because although it was a big crash from the outside, it was okay," he said.

Schiff could relate to this experience from her own crash at the Nurburgring, and added: "My dad was sat in the grandstand there, the only person sat there as well. When Ollie [Bearman] was telling us about getting out the car so his parents would be relieved, I felt the same way.

"But again, it's this is not restricted to the Nordschleife, it's not restricted to this race. This can happen in F1 this can happen in F4 it can happen anywhere. And Max is fortunate enough to be able to call the shots on that."

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F1 Sky Sports Nürburgring Naomi Schiff